calendar

Search:

Well…I took a class in Moku Hanga this weekend. What’s that? WELLLLLL…it’s the Japanese style of woodblock printing. This is an old craft where people spend decades becoming experts in either print design, cutting of the blocks, or printing the blocks. So far, I’ve spent two days. I’ve got a lot to learn.

Regardless of this daunting history, I plunged in and made a few, simple prints:

I wanted to keep the design simple, and to work on color transparency to describe form. I also created a second print:

This was too simple, for my liking…so I worked on the first one with a few more variations:

That is hopefully the Japanese character for “box”. I decided that this was perhaps too much, so I scaled back:

I liked this one. Notice how wrinkled the paper is. We’re working with super fine paper which is damp. I need to rewet the paper, and dry it flat this time. I liked this print, so I did another color variation:

I enjoyed this, and want to try more interesting designs. It’s definitely not a type of printing where you can just wing it. There are so many complicated variables…how wet is the paper? How much pigment to use? How much rice paste? etc. etc. etc. I’m like Ralph Macchio in the Karate Kid…all impatient to be brilliant immediately. This was fun, though! Now, I’m itchy to carve more…(don’t talk to me about my allergies…I’m itchy because of that as well…)